The plague of secularism that has engulfed the entire world has possibly reached its optimal success. The highly civilized country of Belgium passed a law last month allowing children to choose to euthanize themselves; however, it did not become official until last week. That is when the final seal of approval was placed on this bill by none other than King Philippe himself. Yes, the Roman Catholic King of Belgium, Philippe Louis Leopold Marie, signed the bill making it official. Belgian children can kill themselves if they have “good reason”. (They also need a physician, a psychologist, and the parent(s) to approve their request).

I am also a Roman Catholic. I know many people who are, Roman Catholics . You know what? Ironically, much of the anti-Catholic sentiment comes from those who say they are Catholic. Many approve of abortion, contraception and gay marriage. Heck, Belgium is a 75% Catholic country and they voted by a 2 to 1 majority for the Child Euthanasia Law. But you cannot pick & choose what parts of the faith you like and do not like, especially when it comes to the sanctity of life.

It is NOT easy being Catholic and God knows that. So all He asks us to do is try, try every day. We Catholics have confession for a good reason and that is because we are always messing up. But then you have the secularized Catholics, an oxymoron if ever there was one. You cannot truly “love your neighbor” if you, conditions permitting, would sanction death whether through abortion or euthanasia. The sanctity of life is God-given. God has the power to give life and to take life. Whenever did so many of our species get so smart that laws were enacted giving people the individual “right” to end the God-given life of someone else? This, my friends, is an abomination of the Natural Law which was established by God and is “naturally” ingrained in each of us. We instinctively know what is right and what is wrong. C’mon, you know you do. But how many of us go against the Natural Law because we have been desensitized to the point that we delude ourselves into thinking something ‘unnatural’ is okay because it has been legalized. Adhering to Natural Law often times involves self-denial. However, secularism is the twisted religion of self-gratification. To hell with self-denial.

Jesus and the Little Children

There are many high profile secularized folks who also call themselves Catholics. Let us start with King Philippe of Belgium. He calls himself a Catholic but signs a law allowing children to kill themselves. Sorry King, you cannot have it both ways and you are supposed to set example. The church you belong to rejects euthanasia as intrinsically evil. You, therefore, have rejected Catholicism. You are a secularist and so are all those who helped pass the bill that you signed. End of story.

The State of Oregon passed the “Death with Dignity” Act in 1997. Washington, Montana and Vermont have also passed Euthanasia laws. Belgium passed their euthanasia law in 2002, the second highly civilized nation to do so (The Netherlands was first). In 2011, 1133 cases of euthanasia were reported in Belgium. In 2012, 1432. That figure represents 2% of all deaths in that country. Statistics show that the suicide rate of those who have undergone sex change surgery is as high as 31%. Why such despair? Why such hopelessness? I say it is because many have the misguided and illogical notion that our happiness depends on “things”. Good health, money, position and material goods have become the god that never satisfies. Worshipping those things are the violation of the very First Commandment. Secularism honors the god of hopelessness and despair. The God of mercy and love has been rejected for a false god. And, after all those self-inflicted deaths, they pass a euthanasia law for children. How sad this is.

King Philippe is one of many highly placed people who have embraced secularism and then pretend that they are being virtuous by giving approval to all things for all people. Legalization of drugs, of abortion, of euthanasia, of same-sex marriage are all the result of a civilized society that has deluded itself into a false happiness. This false happiness is never attained and ultimately leads people off a cliff into a sea of misery. Those that might have the “temerity” to say “NO” are branded as intolerant. At least those folks can still sport a truthful smile even though it might have cost them defilement and persecution to keep it.

Mr. Peterson, you have incisively analyzed the root cause of (ex-?)Christendom's moral malaise. St. Paul and Jesus summarized your thesis pithily when the former wrote (1Tim 6:10), "For the desire of money is the root of all evils," and the latter said (Mt 6:24), "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Of course, neither the Apostle nor the Christ was condemning money or wealth as such; the _love_ of money and the _serving_ of mammon are the real moral problem, i.e., the elevation of the material to that which properly belongs to the Divine. This is what happens when the Church Militant allows itself to be crowded out of the public square by the worshippers of the material (which simply serves to camouflage the real object of their adoration, the prince of this world, as he is repeatedly termed in St. John's Gospel).